Siem Reap to Bangkok

Up and out early again. For our bus we had to be at the nearby tourist office at 7:30, but when we went downstairs for breakfast and check-out at 7am there was nobody except an old lady sweeping floors. Even though breakfast starts at 7am and I'd told them the day before we would want breakfast at 7am! After 15 frustrating minutes of waiting, we eventually just left the key on the reception desk and left without paying $2 for the two water bottles we'd taken earlier from the fridge. Didn't really want to leave cash lying around - sorry guys!

Quick minivan transfer to the actual bus station where we boarded the bus to the Thai border at Poi Pet. The large bus was reasonably comfortable, not particularly designed for tiny Cambodians. Travel time was about 3.5 hours, with one brief stop. Approaching the border we were all given yellow lanyards which I thought was quite a good idea. Unlike the Vietnam-Laos border and the Laos Cambodian border we'd crossed, this border was a hive of activity.

Stamped out of Cambodia, we walked across into Thailand, filled in our visa-on-arrival cards and then waited in an agonising line for an hour to get our Thailand entry stamp. Finally into Thailand, we managed to find the connecting bus (it's a different vehicle as Thailand and Cambodia drive on different sides of the road) and then mysteriously waited for 45 minutes before leaving at 2pm. Everyone had been there for ages so it's not like one person was held up or something. Would've been great if they'd said "leaving at 2pm" so you could go and grab food - instead they said "leaving soon" and I ran to grab the closest thing I could find, then waited around for 30 minutes. Sigh.

Next bus was actually two minivans, really just Toyota Hiace style vans with seats. Crowded but not cramped as others had been, though it was still at least 5 hours to Bangkok. Stopped once for a bathroom and snacks break, then about 30 minutes later the driver decided to stop for petrol as well. No idea why he couldn't do that at the previous stop or hell, even before picking us up! Ah well.

Eventually we got to Bangkok around 7pm where we hopped out near a skytrain metro stop. It was a 15 minute cab ride to Khao San Road where we were staying, and the first tuk-tuk driver who approached us wanted 300 baht (about $15). We laughed and walked away, flagged down a cab who wanted 200 baht and wouldn't negotiate. Finally a third cab pulled up and after much consideration agreed to use the meter. When we arrived at Khao San Road the meter was about 75 baht. Yeah. He had "no change" so we gave him 100 baht total, but that's still half the price of the next cheapest offer. Taxi drivers are the worst thing about Bangkok, well that and the traffic anyway.

First thing was to organise our tour for tomorrow, as the ones online were very expensive and we figured we could get it cheaper in Bangkok itself. First office we stopped at had a tour available for about 1/3rd the price, so we paid up and headed for the hotel after grabbing a 40 baht pad thai from a street cart. While checking in the girl from the tour office came running up breathlessly to tell us she'd made a mistake and had only charged us for one person! After a bunch of negotiation we got an extra discount and it was still cheaper than online, but probably more than we wanted to pay. Oh well.

By now it was 8:30pm and we hadn't been upstairs to the room, so we finally retreated and cooled down with the air conditioning. I went back out to try and get a SIM card and a beer, but was unsuccessful on both because nobody had the one-week SIM cards, and it was still the religious holiday so alcohol sales were banned! At least I got a banana pancake. But not the best day all up, probably the worst one we've had on the trip so far.Read more